18 Apr 2008
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| Drawing geographic maps with Visio | |
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ShapeSource (www.ShapeSource.com) attracts thousands of visitors looking for Visio shapes and add-ons. What would you think is the most popular download? What type of shapes are requested most? The product downloaded most often is our free US Map stencil and we receive more requests for Visio map shapes than any other type of shape with the exception of network equipment. To meet the demand for Visio map shapes we looked at several approaches. First we considered converting existing presentation quality vector image files into Visio. However, we found that the boundaries of several products we reviewed were not precise enough to meet our standards. They didn't fit together all that well. They may be just fine for a PowerPoint presentation but we wanted to offer truly accurate map shapes. We accomplished our goal by converting data from Geographical Information Systems (GIS) such as ESRI shape files. We had already created a program for importing ESRI files into Microsoft MapPoint so we extended that technology to generate Visio map shapes from these super accurate data files. The result is MapShapes a series of Visio stencils containing shapes that accurately represent geography and offer several automation features. For example, consider the problem of fitting map segments together once you have disassembled them. There are several techniques that can return shapes to their original position. Ours is based on real relative coordinates of geographical regions as defined by the GIS data. When you drag a shape to a page, it locates itself on the page according at its relative position to other geography. If you move or resize the shape, you can right click to a menu that resets its original size and position. This eliminates any guess work. In the example below, we dropped aPacific, New England, South Central, and South Atlantic region shapes onto the page. They located themselves and subsequent additions will fit perfectly.  We also wanted our map shapes to enable easy access to the wealth of information available on the Web for geographical regions. Each MapShape contains a contextual link to the Wikipedia entry for the selected shape. From Wikipedia you can access a tremendous amount of additional information from links on its pages.  Unlike clipart, MapShape Visio map shapes enable you to visualize data in Visio 2007. David Parker, a Microsoft Visio MVP, has developed a very nice Visio data model for the United Kingdom. MapShapes can visualize whatever data set you choose with Visio 2007. Chris Roth, aka Visio Guy, has drawn several maps with national boundaries that are useful and include some of the features we've developed for MapShapes. There are several differences between these free sources and MapShapes which are for sale. GIS accuracy, attention to detail, automation features that make it easy to assemble maps and visualizations, and the ability to extend their information reach well beyond Visio and out to the Web. We also include vector files that you can insert into any Microsoft Office document without needing Visio. Our first MapShapes set is for US States and Counties. We plan to release many more map sets based on GIS data. |
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| New shapes , News , Using Visio | |
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| posted by administrator at 17:00 | |
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